A stress-compensating circuit in the context of the present description advantageously is meant to be a circuit for compensating mechanical tension, mechanical strain and/or mechanical stress.
A stress-compensated circuit advantageously is meant to be a circuit where the influences of mechanical tension, mechanical strain and/or mechanical stress are compensated.
A plurality of different circuits, the output signals of which are dependent on mechanical stress, is used in the art. Thus, mechanical stress or mechanical stress effects exemplarily influence the precision of Hall sensors, band gap references (such as, for example, reference voltage sources or reference current sources), temperature sensors and stable on-chip oscillators.
In order to avoid and/or reduce a loss in precision, it is frequently desirable to compensate the mechanical stress or mechanical stress effects, i.e., to reduce, minimize or, in the ideal case, eliminate totally the influence of mechanical stress on the output signal of, for example, a Hall sensor, a band gap reference, a temperature sensor or an on-chip oscillator.
Up to now, a change in the electrical voltages or currents from L-shaped (i.e., mutually perpendicular) n-type diffusion resistors or p-type diffusion resistors has been detected in order to compensate stress (i.e., to compensate influences of mechanical stress). However, precise current mirrors, comparators, amplifiers or analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are necessary for this.